T
he sequencer-based arrangements of past albums find their fruition on Force Majeure. With Steve Jolliffe gone and Klaus Krieger reduced to an ancillary role, Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke parlay their longstanding collaboration into a complementary musical dialogue that is at once lean and evocative. The album’s highlight is the side-long title track, which suggests nothing less than the creation of the world, with the hands of God communicated by the purposeful sequencer patterns, followed by moments of hope and heroism that approach the sublime, and closing with the lighthearted counterpoint of a futuristic J.S. Bach. “Cloudburst Flight” begins with a lazily passionate acoustic guitar and warm washes of synthesizer, but soon Froese’s grating and garbled guitar pushes the musical discussion into one of conflict, which is finally resolved with the coexistence of peace and turmoil. “Thru Metamorphic Rocks” contains more heroic guitar from Froese, but is generally a return to the amorphous and eerie compositions of past albums, with percussive space echoes that occasionally suggest the work of Klaus Schulze. Krieger, who served as an independently minded element on Cyclone, appears here more to lend credibility to Froese’s rock-like guitar segments than act as a third voice. Force Majeure’s greatest achievement is the overwhelming sense of purpose that marks this music -- if earlier albums were susceptible to charges of improvisational noodling at times, no such charge could be reasonably levelled against this album. This is a calculated and compelling work from two experienced artists who move through the electronic medium with grace and precision.